As a response to the startling numbers of sexual assaults on campus and in hopes of educating their students, SIU has implemented in the past few years a "consent and respect training" that is required to be completed before class registration each year. It's ran through the 3rd Millennium Classrooms, and it includes a series of videos and small blurbs about subjects such as consent, sexual assault, domestic abuse, helping sexual assault survivors, and bystander intervention. I'm not here to say this program isn't helpful or extremely useful; however, it's not quite there. While the program is sure to address rape myths and rape culture, there is still a subtle sense of the same victim-blaming throughout the program that it is trying to prevent.

For instance, in the pre-test, there is a question asking, essentially, what kind of factors can protect you against sexual violence. I chose "staying in a group when partying" for lack of a great choice, but apparently, that was not the only answer. The other answers that were correct included drinking less or staying sober, not having a lot of casual hookups, and having fewer rape myth beliefs. My first problem with this question was the question itself: what can YOU do to protect YOURSELF from getting assaulted? I'm sure this wasn't the intention, but even the wording sets the precedent for the program that you have a responsibility to keep someone else from assaulting you. Sex is not a crime, no matter how many people you do it with. Legal-age drinking is not a crime. Staying in a group is a smart choice for many, many reasons, but it is not your job to make sure that you have someone with you at all times so that others will not assault you. This question made me extremely cautious of the rest of the program as I made my way through it.

Secondly, there is an entire section on responsible drinking. Statistics did in fact show that more assaults happen when one or both parties has been drinking or using drugs, but in light of cases like Brock Turner and so many others, the idea that alcohol somehow changes the circumstances of the crime is somewhat asinine. The analogy I've seen is this: if someone's TV were stolen, would it matter that they were drunk? If someone broke in to your house tonight while you were drinking, does that change anything? Does that change the fact that they burglarized you? Absolutely not. So when someone is assaulted, whether they're under the influence or not, they were still assaulted. If they couldn't fight back or say no, that doesn't change that they didn't deserve it. Period. There is no other situation where the victim is so often questioned, gas-lighted, completely dismissed or even accused of lying about the crime that was committed on them. In what other situation have you seen people on Facebook sharing memes like "Share this if you think every woman who LIES about rape should go to jail" when actual rapists aren't going to jail to begin with? Where else is this a bigger concern?

A last area of concern for me through this training came from one of the celebrity videos. It featured many famous actors from shows like Law and Order, saying that it is our job to help protect each other and there shouldn't be even one assault. Good message overall, but at multiple points in the video, the phrase "our daughters and our sisters" is used to describe women who are assaulted. What if it was your daughter? You need to protect them. This is a problem because it perpetuates the idea that women are only important because of their relationships to other people. Also likely not an intended fluke, but this is something that has come up time and time again in media. Whether it's your sister or a stranger, you should be helping them. Victims are people past the fact that they're someone's daughter or sister or brother or neighbor.

However, I'd like to make sure that this program isn't completely discredited; there are many things in here that are beyond useful. There is a section on all of these exact myths explicitly stating things like no matter how they are dressed, they are not asking for it or rape can still happen between people in relationships. There is a section on consent saying that even if you've been with someone before, even if they're not saying no, if they're not saying yes, don't do it. There are large letters saying SEXUAL ASSAULT IS NEVER THE FAULT OF THE VICTIM. The videos say "not even one." There is a section showing how you can help other people when you see them in a potentially-risky situation, both actively and passively depending on your level of comfort. There is a section showing how to report a crime and how you can be there for someone who has been assaulted. These are all TREMENDOUS, and I wish that more people took the program seriously. This program is absolutely a step in the right direction. While it was tedious and seemed common sense for someone like me, I have no doubt that it could be useful on a college campus.